Making Yesterday’s Fashion Totally Now

Within FIT’s upstairs gallery, you’ll receive a master class (from the masters) on how to take something old, inject it with an inspired twist, and create Vogue-ready looks ready for the modern world in FIT’s show RetroSpective, running through November 16.

FIT curator Jennifer Farley did an outstanding job of selecting iconic looks associated with well-dressed woman from previous centuries and pulling interpretation after interpretation on that theme from FIT’s collection. Historical references, empire waists, hoop skirts, and leg-o-mutton sleeves all get the old/new side-by-side treatment in the galleries.

History reinterpreted –elevated sandal created by David Evins for Elizabeth Taylor in her 1961 epic, Cleopatra

How did forward-looking designers mine ancient cultures, textures, and materials and make them look current? Look no further than the Grecian evocation of Madame Grés, sandals designed by David Evins for Liz’s 1961 Cleopatra look, Valerie Porr’s 1960s take on Guinevere, and Versace gone baroque. Click on the links to see the pieces on the show’s website.

In the section on bustles, you’ll see beautiful 1870s creations alongside bustle-inspired works by Schiaparelli (1939), Herrera (1988), and Anna Sui (1999). But across the aisle in the section on hoop skirts, you expect to see 1860s dresses next to more modern works by Hishinuma (1996), Rochas (2004), and Thom Browne (2013). But who could expect to see hoops from the Fifties – Hoop-la (1956), which kept your bouffant skirt fluffed out, and the amazing Belle O’ the Ball collapsible skirt hoop (in its original box!), which allowed every girl-on-the-go to sleep easier knowing that her bouffant could be perfectly pouffed wherever she travelled.

If you love fashion, get to this show and enjoy additional meditation on the decades of transformations associated with the New Look, corsets, platform pumps, playsuits, paper dresses, clogs, grunge, and graffiti. If you can’t get to the show, take some time to look through the show’s website to see about a third of what’s there and to read more about each concept and creation. FIT did a beautiful job on it.

Days Until It Opens

Days Left to See It

Bob & Roberta Smith at MoMA PS1, "Shared Legacy" at Museum of American Folk Art, and "Colors of the Universe" and the Winchester Bible at The MetMarch 8th, 2015

6days to go.

Days Left to See It

Madame Cezanne and "Making Pottery Art" at The Met, "Lights, Camera, Astoria" at Museum of the Moving Image, Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao at Museum of City of NY, and Joyce Scott at MADMarch 15th, 2015

13days to go.

Closing Soon

3/6 "Emily Dickinson: Musician and Poet" at NYPL Performing Arts (Lincoln Center)
3/8 "Colors of the Universe: Chinese Hardstone Carvings" at The Met
3/8 Bob and Roberta Smith at MoMA PS1
3/8 "Zero Tolerance" at MoMA PS1
3/8 "A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America" at American Folk Art
3/8 Winchester Bible at The Met
3/8 The Armory Show at Piers 92 & 94
3/15 Madame Cezanne at The Met
3/15 "Lights, Camera, Astoria" at Museum of the Moving Image
3/15 "Making Pottery Art" at The Met
3/15 "Maryland to Murano: Joyce J. Scott" at MAD
3/15 "Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao's New York" at Museum of the City of New York
3/22 ''Toulouse-Lautrec: Prints and Posters" at MoMA
3/22 "Cut to Swipe" at MoMA
3/22 "Helena Rubenstein: Beauty is Power" at Jewish Museum
3/22 "Letters to Afar" at Museum of the City of New York
3/29 "Painting with Threads: Chinese Tapestry and Embroidery" at The Met
3/29 "Art of the Chinese Album" at The Met
3/29 "Judith Scott: Bound and Unbound" at Brooklyn Museum
3/30 "Archeo" at The High Line
3/30 Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook at Sculpture Center
3/31 Bill Morrison at MoMA
3/31 "The Fed at 100" at Museum of American Finance